Dyson sons likely to inherit company

SYDNEY: James Dyson has revealed details of his succession plan which will involve his sons taking over Dyson when he no longer runs the company.

“Like any good business we have a risk strategy,” said Dyson in exclusive interview recently held in Sydney.

“I hope I have set up a [succession] structure that is different to other companies. I have a son who is an engineer and inventor and comes up with more ideas than I do. I still own all of the shares, but my children have a class of share if I disappear.”

Dyson, who turns 59 this year, has two sons – James and Jacob who have worked in design for the floorcare manufacturer.

“In that sense, we might be different to Sony – a public corporation who run [its succession plan] by people with an eye on the stockmarket. We are a private company that invests heavily in research and development and can afford failures. We can take risks and I hope we have shareholders when I am not around that continue in that spirit,” he said.

According to Dyson, if the floorcare manufacturers and venture capitalists invested in his company when he first created the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum cleaning technology, the company structure may have been different.

“I tried to get other investors and they didn’t want to take it on,” he said.

Supporting James Dyson is a board of non-executives including former British Minister of Trade – Sir Richard Needham, British Airways CEO – Bob Ayling and non-American director of Wal-Mart – Alan Lleyton.

This is an extract from an article which will appear in the March 2006 edition of Appliance Retailer magazine.